India’s Lovlina Borgohain on Wednesday went down in the semi-final of the women’s welterweight (64-69kg) category to Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli to settle for a bronze medal. This is India’s third medal of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
Looking to script history by becoming the first-ever boxer from the country to enter an Olympic final, the pugilist from Assam was no match in front of the reigning world champion of the division, as she lost all three rounds with unanimous decision from the five judges going in favour of the Turkish boxer.
Borgohain might have gone down but she has become only the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. Six-time world champion Mary Kom clinched bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, while Vijender Singh bagged bronze in Beijing in 2008.
Competing in the Welter (64-69kg) event, the bronze medalist at the 2017 and the 2021 Asian Championships defeated, Nadine Apetz 3-2 in the round of 16 bout. Three days later in the quarterfinal, she outpunched Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nien-Chin 4-1 to storm into the semifinals and ensure India of another medal at Tokyo 2020.
